Girlish Delight
by It's Just Alex-nyan
Summary: Little Edmund Pevensie learns that girls aren't quite a waste of time.


Edmund Pevensie was a rather normal boy. He liked to play outside, he liked to explore and he loved food. Birthdays were his favorite, when his mum would make him a cake out of the treats he loved; one year it was cookies, the next peppermints.

Edmund Pevensie, however, didn't like girls. They sat inside all day and knitted and other frivolous things, like sew and study. His older sister, Susan, wasn't so annoying. She made him food and stood up for him when his brother Peter picked on him. His younger sister Lucy however, was usually the reason Peter picked on him, and that upset Edmund more than anything. His neighbor Alice was a different story all together.

Alice had lived across the street for as long as Edmund could remember, and that was a very long time ago because Edmund took pride in his good memory, and she hardly said a word to him. She would smile at him while playing in the yard and smile at him when she saw him walking to school, but she never said anything. Alice was the perfect girl, Edmund thought, because she stayed out of the way.

So Edmund became mortified when his mother called to him that Alice was at the door for him one afternoon.

"Good afternoon, Edmund." she gave him a dazzling smile, her green eyes bright. She was hiding something behind her back, but when he tried to look she leaned away. Edmund looked at her warily.

"Hello Alice. What are you doing here?" he tried to ask nicely, but it didn't work. He kept thinking about how she was probably going to give him something frivolous, like all the nonsense his brother got from his admirers. He was proven wrong as she revealed a pretty silver tin.

"My mother taught me how to make Turkish Delight, and I can't eat it all. I wondered if you would like to share it." she opened the top to reveal what looked like the most amazing sweets he'd ever seen, dusted with what looked like powdered sugar. His eyes brightened, but he got the better of himself and puffed out his chest.

"It would be my pleasure." he stated flatly, trying to sound sophosticated like his brother. Alice smiled and sat down on the grass in his yard, and he followed suite.  
>"How are your classes?" she asked, handing him a colorful piece of the confectionary. He stared at it, trying to decide if he should really eat it or not.<p>

"Fine." he answered shortly. She shoved a piece of the Turkish Delight into her mouth.

"Oh. If you need help deciding on a topic I could help you." she offered after she'd swallowed the treat. He gave her a forced smile and stared down at the food in his hand. "It's good! I promise!" she gave him another dazzling smile, motioning for him to eat it. He took a hesitant bite before grinning up at Alice, his eyes sparkling. "I told you!" she grinned. He finished three pieces in no time at all while Alice talked about biproducts and other things he didn't care about. All of a sudden he was knocked to the ground, his Turkish Delight falling out of his grasp. He looked up at his brother, who was studying Alice curiously.

"It's your turn to do the dishes, and I'm not doing them for you again." Peter stated, looking down at Edmund intolerantly. Edmund made a face at him.

"I'll do them later." he snapped rudely, grabbing another piece of Turkish Delight. Peter grabbed it from him and ran back to the door.

"Wash the dishes or I'm telling mum!" he threatened before going back inside. Edmund turned to look at Alice, his face red. Alice smiled and stood up.

"I don't want to cause you trouble. You can have the rest of the Turkish Delight though." she gave a small curtsy as he stood up.

"Um, thank you Alice." Edmund gave her a thin smile, picking up the silver tin.

"My pleasure, Edmund." she giggled. Edmund liked her laugh, it wasn't loud and annoying like when girls tried to get the attention of the boys in his class, and it wasn't quiet like when they were talking to them trying to sound like women. "I'll see you tomorrow." she waved and looked both ways before crossing the street, Edmund waving absently after her.

"Edmund! Come wash the dishes, please!" his mother called to him through the open window. He sighed before running back inside to hide the tin of Turkish Delight somewhere his brother, nor Lucy, would find it.

Alice started to go over to the Pevensie's house weekly, bringing new flavors or colors of Turkish Delight. Edmund would sit with her in the yard and laugh and talk about anything with her while they stuffed their faces with the confectionery. He started to avoid her, however, when the children at school started to tease him.

"Edmund and Alice sitting in a tree!" they'd stick their tongues out at him in the playground, giggling and poking fun at him.

"Hey Pevensie, I saw your girlfriend talking to Wilson the other day!"

Edmund seethed, not because Alice was talking to another boy, but because he was getting the short end of the stick. Alice wasn't getting teased, so why was he? He was constantly getting poked and pushed and made fun of..

He started to feel bad that he was avoiding Alice. Although she didn't appear to be getting teased at school, he saw that while she was walking home girls would knock her books out of her hands, or tug her bows out of her hair. He gradually became more and more intolerant of it all.

Needless to say his mother was surprised when she got telephoned about how Edmund had bitten a boy in his class on the arm.

"Edmund Pevensie! I am surprised at you!" she scolded him as he sat in front of the fireplace, holding an ice pack to his swollen black eye.

"He was making fun of Alice." he mumbled, looking down at the ground. His mother blinked, a little shocked. She sat down next to him and pushed his hair out of his face, kissing his forehead.

"You can't bite your classmates, Edmund, that's not polite." she gave him a thin smile as she ran her fingers through his hair. He hummed and leaned into her.

"It isn't polite to make fun of people, either." he stated. His mother couldn't argue with that.

As much as Edmund wanted Alice to come over more, it was almost impossible. With the air-raid sirens going off almost every other day, it wasn't even possible to go to school. More than half of the time the sirens went off for no reason but precaution, but more than once had there been an actual air-raid. Edmund was genuinely surprised when the doorbell rang. He ran to get it, and opened it to find Alice. He grinned at her but it was immediately wiped off his face. She wasn't smiling at all, in fact she looked rather sad.

"Good afternoon, Edmund." she gave him a halfhearted smile, pulling a tin can from behind her back. Edmund took it hesitantly.

"What's wrong Alice?" he asked, his eyebrows pulling together. Alice blinks owlishly at him, not sure if she should answer.

"My father's gone missing. No one knows if he's a war prisoner or if he's just lost somewhere in hiding. Maybe dead." there's tears in her eyes now, and Edmund sets the tin of sweets down to offer his arms out to her. She gives him a watery smile before clinging to him, her face in his shoulder. He wraps his arms around her, not knowing how to comfort her any other way. She sniffs and pulls away from him. He offers her a handkerchief, but she waves it away, opting for wiping her tears away with her arm.

"I hope you'll be alright." Edmund states honestly. Alice shrugs.

"Thank you Edmund. For everything." she kissed his cheek and looked up at the sky before running across the street. Edmund watched her with wide eyes, making sure she was safely in her house before closing the door. He put his hand to his cheek, tempted to wipe away the lingering feeling of her lips, but he doesn't have the heart to.

That night the air-raid sirens went off again. Edmund opened the curtains, looking around the street outside. The remaining people that were outside were banging on doors, trying to get into a house, but no one would open the door. He stood there watching in distaste. Light exploded in front of his eyes, and he dropped his tin of Turkish Delight as he stumbled, the earth shaking with the force of the bombs beginning to drop.

"Edmund! Come here! Now!" his mother called. It was dark in the house now, the lights off and the curtains being closed. Edmund looked up through the window to see Alice's house in flames, pieces of her house scattered across the street.

"Alice!" he ran to open the door, but Susan closed it and grabbed his hand. "Susan let go!" he screeched above the sirens, wailing when she locked the door. Susan dragged him rather unwillingly, shutting the curtain he'd left open.

"We have to get to the shelter, Edmund."

Edmund thrashes in her embrace until he gets lose, and he runs to the door again but his mother stops him.

"Your father will be fine, Edmund!" her mother assumes he's throwing a fit because of his father, and suddenly that _is_ why he's throwing a fit. Where is his father? What happened to Alice? He can't even think. His body is trembling and tears are falling down his face, and he can barely hear his brother yelling at him.

"Why can't you just do as you're told?"

He remembers the Turkish Delight in the sitting room, and he knows he probably won't ever do as he's told.

* * *

><p>Authors Note: I was pondering the other night about why Edmund loved Turkish Delight so much, and I just watched the movie called <em>Flipped<em> and it gave me an idea for this. I'm not sure if I like the ending. ;; I wasn't sure how I wanted to end it when I got the idea, sooooo yeah.

**Thanks for reading. :3**


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